The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick - Philip K. Dick Fan Site

11/18/11 Wired 11.12: The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick
or all or none of the above. "I don't think Phil was all that interested in the morality of pre-crime,"
says Goldman, an executive producer of the film. But Spielberg was, and the movie ends with a
ringing endorsement of the American justice system. "It's very difficult to be true to Phil Dick and
make a Hollywood movie," Goldman observes. "His thinking was subversive. He questioned everything
Hollywood wanted to affirm." No matter. With the release of Minority Report, Dick became an A-list
Hollywood scribe, a player, a member of the club.
Art Sreiber
Paycheck director John Woo made
his name with violent ballets of
bullets; his new inspiration:
Hitchcock.
Vancouver, June 2003. The Paycheck shoot
is well under way, and this morning Woo is
rehearsing one of the opening scenes. A vast
soundstage on the edge of town has been
converted into the headquarters of Allcom, a
company that seems to be an unholy marriage
of Microsoft, Monsanto, and GE. On one side of
the soundstage is the bio lab, a rainforest of
orchids and bromeliads and water lilies and
trees reaching up to the ceiling, interspersed
with catwalks and robot arms. This is Uma's
FEATURE:
The Second Com ing of
Phillip K. Dick
PLUS:
Reality Check
The Metaphysics of
Philip K. Dick
The Hollywood
Treatm ent
domain. On the other side, behind an enormous door, is the
computer lab Ben is about to disappear into. When he emerges,
three years later, it will be with his memory wiped. But on his way
in, he captures Uma's attention. Mischievously, she hits him with a
blast of air almost strong enough to bowl him over. "I give up! I give
up!" he cries, slicking back his hair. In a flash a robot arm swings in
front of him, halting an inch or two from his face. In its pincers, a
yellow orchid.
"Don't give up," Uma says softly.
There are plenty of action sequences in Paycheck- a motorcycle chase through the streets of
Vancouver, a climactic fight scene replete with explosions, gunfire, and people diving through the air.
But for Woo, that's not the point. Woo made his name in Hong Kong in the '80s with hyperviolent cult
films like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer- maximum spatter rendered with balletic grace.
Transplanted to Hollywood in the '90s, he graduated to big-budget action-adventure tales, most
notably Face Off and Mission: Impossible 2, the second-highest-grossing film of 2000. But like other
genre directors, he dreams of greater things. "Paycheck is a suspenseful movie, but also it is a love
story," he says in heavily accented English while the crew preps the next shot. "Usually, science
fiction movies are pretty cold. I am trying to make this one more human. Some of the scenes are a
tribute to" - he claps a hand over his mouth, pretending he's afraid to utter the word - "Hitchcock."
Paramount
Woo cites Hitchcock - along with '30s musicals, Francis Ford
Coppola, and the blood-soaked Westerns of Sam Peckinpah - as a
major influence. "Hitchcock's movies are so precise," he says
admiringly. "Every shot is calculated. And they're not only about
suspense - I also find them very romantic." He mentions the scene
in The Birds when Tippi Hedren is driving to meet Rod Taylor, a pair
of lovebirds in a cage on the floor: There are lovebirds in Paycheck,
too. He mentions the scene in North by Northwest when Cary Grant
is chased by a crop duster in an Indiana cornfield: In Paycheck,
Affleck is chased by a train. "Ben plays an ordinary man, not a
superhero," Woo says. "Just like a young Cary Grant - that's how I
want him to be."
"This is a part I went after really aggressively," says Affleck. "I've
always been a fan of Philip K. Dick, both his writings and the movie
adaptations. They're big-budget movies for smart people." Too
often, Affleck admits, that's an oxymoron: "There's a tendency to
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